Leslie Vernon Is Back and Behind the Mask II Has Started Filming

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) is a mockumentary in which a film crew follows an aspiring slasher killer as he prepares for his big night. That is the whole premise, and it is a brilliant one. The crowdfunded sequel, Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon, has now officially started production, as Bloody Disgusting reports.

I read that headline and said "oh, finally" to an empty room. Which is fair, because it has been a long wait.

What is Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon?

It is a slasher film about slasher films. Leslie Vernon is a polite, chatty young man who has decided he is going to become the next great horror icon, in the same league as Jason, Michael and Freddy. A documentary crew, led by a reporter, agrees to follow him around while he gets ready. They watch him plan, train and explain how it all works.

And he does explain it, in loving detail. The film treats the rules of the genre like a trade, with its own craft and its own paperwork. Why the final girl matters. Why the killer never seems to run but always catches up. How much cardio is involved in looking unhurried. It is funny, but the joke never stops being affectionate. You can tell the people who made it grew up on the same films we did.

I will not say how it ends, because I do not spoil things on this site. What I will say is that it changes gear in a way that surprised me the first time, and the comedy gets a proper edge. If you have only ever heard it described as "the Scream one, but a documentary", that undersells it. It is a lot more tender than that, and a bit stranger.

What do we know about the sequel?

The title is Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon, and the headline from Bloody Disgusting says production has officially begun. That is the part I am relying on them for, so if you want the details of the start of filming, go and read their report for yourself.

Beyond the start of filming, I am leaving the cast and crew details to Bloody Disgusting's report rather than guess. The film is being made independently, with crowdfunding behind it. No release date has been confirmed that I can find, so I am not going to pretend to one.

That is plenty to be going on with. A sequel arriving this long after the first film could easily feel like a nostalgia exercise, but a crowdfunded one carries a different sort of weight. It means enough people cared about a small cult film to put their own money behind it. Horror fans do that very well.

Why does a meta slasher sequel make me nervous and excited?

Both, honestly. A film that spends its whole running time explaining the rules of the slasher has a particular problem when it comes back. Meta horror is easiest to do once. The first time, the trick is that the film knows the genre. The second time, the audience knows the trick, and the film has to find something fresh to say.

So the question I am carrying into this one is simple: what does Leslie Vernon have left to explain? Twenty years of slasher history have happened since he first picked up his camera crew. There have been remakes, requels, legacy sequels, killers who get their own origin stories and franchises that now openly joke about their own formulas. The genre has been busy talking about itself. A film that began as a sly outsider commentary now has a lot of company.

That could work in its favour. Leslie was always a character who took the job seriously, and a man who takes the job seriously is at his funniest when the industry around him has gone a bit daft. I would love to see him look at the modern slasher landscape with the same polite horror he brought to everything else.

My other hope is smaller. I want the sequel to keep the warmth. The original worked because you liked these people, even the one carrying a machete. If the new film remembers that, the rest should fall into place.

Where should you start if you have not seen the first film?

Start with the first one, obviously, and go in knowing as little as possible. It is the sort of film that rewards a fresh sofa, a blanket and nobody talking over the top of it. If you already love Scream, Cabin in the Woods or the older slashers it teases, you are exactly who it was made for.

I am going to rewatch it before the sequel arrives, and I would like to hear what you think. Do you want Leslie to stay a mystery, or do you want to see him properly back at work? Tell me which side you are on, and I will tell you mine once I have seen what they have done with him.